HC Deb 05 March 2004 vol 418 cc1189-91W
Mr. Kaufman

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will instruct the National Television Licensing Authority to(a) assess the compatibility with data protection legislation of its statement in the current advertising campaign that its database lists every home without a television licence and (b) report that assessment to her. [157457]

Tessa Jowell

The BBC is the statutory Licensing Authority and the Government have no power to instruct the Corporation on matters relating to the administration of the television licensing system.

Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much funding(a) each London borough and (b) Greater London has received from National Lottery grants in each of the last five years. [158434]

Estelle Morris

Total Lottery funding in each London borough in each of the last five financial years is shown in this table. This is derived from the Department's database of Lottery awards, which is based on information supplied by the distributing bodies.

However, the BBC has confirmed that, as data controller for the TV licensing database, it requires its agent, TV Licensing, to comply fully with data protection legislation and to undertake regular reviews to ensure continued compliance. The BBC does not believe that the information held by TV Licensing on unlicensed addresses contravenes data protection legislation.

Mr. Kaufman

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will instruct the National Television Licensing Authority(a) not to undertake any advertising campaign that could be construed as containing threats or Menaces and (b) to abandon forthwith the poster campaign using the statement Get One, or Get Done. [157458]

Tessa Jowell

The BBC is the statutory Licensing Authority and the Government have no power to instruct the Corporation on matters relating to the administration of the television licensing system. However, the BBC has indicated that all television licensing campaigns undergo a series of legal compliance checks before they are approved by the Corporation and are placed in the public domain.